Mark Robins insists Stoke City are in a much better position off the pitch than when he walked through the door 15 months ago – but knows he has to prove that on the pitch.
Robins admits that there is a lot of work ahead – and he sees the return of Damian Roden as new head of medical and performance as a key step to reviewing and improving the squad’s availability record next season.
But he is not ignoring the developments he believes are helping to lay a platform for what will hopefully be better times ahead.
“We’ve got to do that (review the injury record in close season),” he said. “I’ve never known anything like it.
“We’ve had a situation where we were fine with injuries, didn’t have many, and then we had impact, impact, impact, soft tissue, soft tissue, soft tissue because of the fact we’ve had players who haven’t been able to sustain game time – and I’ve then had to bring players back probably earlier than I would have done had we (not had more injuries).
“It’s been a vicious cycle and you’re chasing yourself, chasing your tail all the time from that point, which then is a false economy. It has a really difficult sting at the end of it.
“But people have lived through this longer than I have. I’ve only been here for 15 or 16 months and I can only say that from where it was to where it is now is chalk and cheese, night and day.
“We’ve got to go and keep building to make it even better to get the club towards where it needs to be. Everyone wants Premier League but it can’t just happen like that, it cannot. It doesn’t happen like that.
“We have to live through this together and we have to make sure we deliver on what we’re saying. It will take time.”
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